TC

Vision

V/O

SYNC

Starts:

10.00.

00.00

00.03

This is where my son used to sleep, says this father of eight.

00.09

These are the tears of pain, in the heart of Turkish Kurdistan.

00.15

A mother cries for the loss of her 14-year-old son, killed, the father says, by the police.

00.22

Suleyman Cadiroglu, Kurdish refugee

The police went there.

They started beating the children up.

They drove him fifty metres away as they did so.

He was selling toys and sunglasses.

The police came and set upon them.

They killed my son by kicking him to death.

After they killed him, they poured some water in his mouth. He died on the spot

00.44

It was on a street like this in the eastern Turkish town of Van that young Saban Jadir-olu died.

00.50

Like many kids his age, Saban worked the streets, selling bits and bobs to help his impoverished refugee family make ends meet.

00.58

In the scorching heat of the day, it was a tough way to live.

01.04

Like much of eastern Turkey the town of Van lives under a state of emergency.

01.09

Kids like these have known nothing but war since 1984, when the militant Kurdish Workers' Party, the PKK, launched what it considered to be a war of liberation against the Turkish authorities.

01.21

"Happy is he who is a Turk", this government banner proclaims.

01.25

But in the mountains above, the military keeps a close eye over the country's restless Kurdish population, which enjoys few political and cultural freedoms under the Turkish flag.

01.37

Even Kurdish emblems and music, symbols of a separate identity, are frowned upon by the authorities.

01.46

Political discussion is confined to the offices of barely tolerated Kurdish political parties, where the walls

testify to the horrors that have afflicted this ancient people;

01.56

pictures of politicians, assassinated, it is believed, by government sympathisers

02.02

Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK leader, who languishes in jail facing the death sentence...but for whom support among many Kurds is still strong.

02.11

Like the militant Kurdish leader, Saban's father is also looking for justice and freedom for his children.

And, like many other Kurds, he finds the authorities unsympathetic to his demands.

02.24

Suleyman Cadiroglu, Kurdish refugee

May God strike the house of the prosecutor.

The prosecutor didn't take up the case.

The doctor didn't give a report.

The police and the prosecutor are all witnesses.

02.38

They sent his body from there to Diyarbakr.

They opened him up down the middle as far as his belly.

They shaved his head and removed his brain.

They'd taken other organs out from in front.

02.55

Jihan Sinjar, one of only three Kurdish woman mayors in the region, also knows the pain of loss.

03.03

Her husband, Mehmet, a Kurd and a member of parliament, was assassinated six years ago.

03.09

Now, she has taken up where he left off, fighting for Kurdish political rights and serving tea to an army of body guards that protect her from the same assassins that might have killed her husband.

03.25

Cihan Sincar. Mayor of Kiziltepe

No, I've never been afraid and I won't be made to feel afraid.

Of course the price is heavy.

I receive a lot of threats.

It's the price of humanity.

I'll carry on struggling until the end.

And I'm not afraid to do it.

03.41

A lot of our friends in the party were killed and we were exposed to all kinds of obstacles.

But still we didn't take a step backwards.

There has to be a party such as this in Turkey.

Right now there are many parties but in our view none of them have done what they should have done.

04.02

Ever since modern Turkey was founded at the end of First World War, the Kurds have been struggling for greater control over their daily lives.

04.07

In the latest round in the conflict, nearly 40,000 people have died, many of them civilians killed by the army...and the PKK.

04.15

Despite PKK claims that it will lay down its weapons before the end of the year, many Kurds continue to live in fear, watched over by the military.

04.26

Even at this local hospital, security is tight and harassment by the police a part of daily life.

04.35

Cihan Sincar. Mayor of Kiziltepe

They want to live normal lives.

They want to be able to take children to the park, for instance.

To live nicely, humanely.

If a person understands this, they will do whatever they can.

04.46

Which is why Sinjar has sent her children to study abroad, so uncertain is she about the future of her people...and her country.

04.56

It's a very sensitive period.

Everybody is waiting to see what will happen tomorrow.

Everybody is waiting.

Nobody can guess what is going to happen in the future.

05.06

As with the majority of ethnic Turks, Kurds are Muslims, sharing a common cultural and religious heritage at the heart of the Middle East that goes back many centuries. 

05.19

Telling them apart by their features alone is basically impossible.

05.23

Many Turks do not view the Kurds as a separate people at all, but as an inherent part of the nation.

05.29

Most Kurds, too, don't want independence from Turkey, just autonomy within it.

05.36

Indeed, many feel a strong sense of loyalty to the country, identifying with ethnic Turks to the west, and giving money to help them through the devastating earthquakes that have struck in 1999.

05.47

But for all that binds them, ethnic Turks and Kurds remain distinct.

05.54

Here, Kurdish men sing and dance traditional folk songs at a village wedding, remembering their heroes who fought invading armies down the centuries, defending their heritage and way of life.

06.09

The women, too, feel a strong sense of their Kurdish identity, celebrating the wedding separately from the men, but nevertheless united by a common bond.

06.25

But life in the countryside is hard.  Over the years, the Turkish military has driven tens of thousands of Kurds from their villages, destroying their homes, because, it claimed, they were giving material support to the PKK.

06.38

Even for those who remain, the going is tough.

06.41

These chicken farmers have had to shut down after 15 years in the business.

06.49

Ali Doganer and his son, Resit, used to have 4000 chickens and a thriving venture that brought in an adequate income.

06.57

Now their coops are empty, inputs too expensive and markets for their produce all but dried up.

07.04

There's no work here.

A man does whatever he can find.

Otherwise, he sits around at home with nothing to do.

We have no other income.

07.14

Across the region unemployment is high.

07.17

Cafés everywhere are full of men with families to support, hoping for work.

07.24

Feridun Celik, one of three mayors of Diyarbakr

Once at least, people had the opportunity to live from agriculture, animal farming and so on in their villages.

But now they are in a very bad way.

The problem should be very seriously dealt with.

07.34

Just outside the ancient walls of the regional capital, Diyarbakr, new slums have sprung up as refugees have poured into the city, bringing their country ways with them.

07.48

In our view, there should be support for people to return to their villages.

This way, the unemployment problem will be alleviated.

Together with investment in the region, this is one of the most important issues.

08.04

To be fair, the government has sunk millions of dollars into massive river damming projects, designed to stimulate the local economy by providing enough water to irrigate this otherwise parched land.

08.18

The Attaturk dam, named after the founder of modern Turkey, is but the largest in a series across the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.

08.27

But no matter how much money the Turkish government invests in the area, Kurds, like Mayor Jihan Sinjar, are unlikely to be satisfied until their basic demands for political and cultural rights are met.

08.40

The people's wishes are a fundamental human right, let me say that.

If those in power can't grasp this, then tomorrow the people will reach their own decisions.

A human right is a most natural right.

08.58

Even if the PKK lays down its weapons and transforms itself into a political party, as it has pledged to do,

many Kurds say they will continue to struggle for their demands...violently if necessary.

09.13

If Abdullah Ocalan, filmed here before his capture, is executed, all hell could break loose, quite literally, given the strength of popular support for the Kurdish leader and the cause of his beleaguered people.

09.27

For the father and family of the young boy killed in Van, ever defiant, victory is not only a desire but a necessity.

End:

10.09.

38.00